Algeria vs South Africa Prediction & Betting Tips - International Friendlies

Prediction published on 26/03/2024, 08:31  by Devesh Jaganath in Football Predictions

African giants Algeria and South Africa will face off in an international friendly at Stade de Nelson Mandela on Tuesday evening. The hosts are ranked 43rd according to FIFA World Rankings, while the visitors are 58th. Algeria are on the rebuild following an atrocious Africa Cup of Nations campaign. The Desert Foxes went into the continental cup as one of the favourites but failed to get past the group stages, ending bottom of Group D, which featured Angola, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. In their three games, they only managed draws against Angola and Burkina Faso and saw their tournament hopes brought to an end in their final group match when they lost 1-0 to Mauritania. That run of results has seen the Desert Foxes drop a whopping 13 places in the world rankings. Algeria played Bolivia last week, and while they claimed a 3-2 win, it was far from a convincing performance as they had to come from behind and only managed to seal the victory in stoppage time. Still, with home-field advantage, the hosts are the favourites heading into this one. 

In contrast, South Africa come into this contest following an excellent AFCON campaign where they entered as 12/1 outsiders but managed to claim the bronze medal, beating DR Congo. Throughout that competition, Bafana Bafana were led by their resilient defence. In six AFCON games, they kept an impressive four clean sheets and only conceded three goals. As a result of their top three finish, South Africa received a significant bump upward in the world rankings, now up to 58th, eight places better off than they were at the start of the year. Bafana Bafana were also in action last week and played out a 1-1 draw against Andorra in Annaba. With that result, they have now only suffered one defeat in their last seven games, which was their AFCON semi-final loss to Nigeria. The visitors have failed to beat this opponent in their last three attempts, though the last match between these two was way back in January 2015.